What's up, everyone? Welcome to Next In Dev. In this issue, I share news about new Payload CMS features, OpenAI drama, and surprise acquisitions.
Of course, as soon as I schedule last week's podcast, Payload releases version three point sixty-three. Their timing is always the worst for me. Version three point sixty-three gave us two new features.
The first is polymorphic uploads. This means that you can use one upload field to manage many types of media from various collections. It has no problems working with bulk upload, and the has many option is available.
The Payload team seems to be working on Next.js sixteen support, but Next.js isn't playing well. I expect full support soon. Besides version three point sixty-three, they released version three point sixty-four.
This version adds support for the UTC time zone in date fields. The feature also fixes a bug that auto-selected your time zone if only one was available. Turbopack is the default builder for Next.js sixteen projects.
Payload now supports Turbopack builds. This brings it one step closer to Next.js supporting it. There are two new features for the MCP plugin. The first allows you to detect when API calls come from the MCP context.
This enables you to use conditional logic for when you're talking to your API through an MCP server. The second allows you to override the default API key authentication included with the MCP plugin.
The last new feature enables translations for the redirect plugin. You can do this directly through the internationalization config option. By popular demand, I'm creating a Payload CMS course.
I'll create a course that walks you from installation all the way to deployment. The course will still feature my unique, comprehensive teaching style.
If you want to get in on the pre-launch, you can visit the website in the show notes to sign up.
I'm starting with a course on all the basics, but I already have an outline for intermediate and advanced Payload CMS topics as well. Figma has been quiet in releases.
It seems they have opened a new office in India, though, and will be expanding business in India. The Next.js team released version sixteen point zero point three.
It's a stability release that fixes build time errors, including RS pack plugin issues, improves Turbopack's handling of edge cases, cleans up CLI output, and makes caching behavior more consistent by enforcing minimum stale times.
These fixes make builds more reliable, caching more predictable, and logs more readable. That means fewer surprises and smoother upgrades for anyone running Next.js apps.
OpenAI released GPT five point one Instant and Thinking. They claim this brings a warmer, more conversational response and better instruction following.
They also say it adapts its reasoning to spend more thinking time on harder problems. I have had nothing but troubles with GPT five point one, though.
It seems slower, less efficient, and unable to do much of what its predecessor could do. It's been downhill for ChatGPT since GPT five replaced four. Each release of a new GPT seems to reduce its capabilities.
What a shame. A judge has ordered OpenAI to hand over twenty million de-identified ChatGPT logs to The New York Times. OpenAI claims that the demand threatens user privacy.
The ruling held that existing orders and OpenAI's own processes protect users. The Times argues they need the logs to examine ChatGPT's behavior in its copyright case.
For web developers, this highlights the legal exposure surrounding model training data. This case also shows that courts may compel access.
Even when companies object on privacy grounds, courts may still ask them to comply. Railway now delivers real-time dashboard notifications for build failures and other issues.
All issues are filterable by project and environment with customizable delivery settings. This feature's in beta, but it matters to devs because it places operational insight where you work.
This helps you catch problems faster without relying on an email notification. You can now package buckets into Railway templates. I'll roll out my own template soon, but in the meantime, know that this is available now.
This enables automatic provisioning and credential wiring. Now, storage-backed apps deploy in one click. This matters because it removes manual setup steps.
It also makes it easier to share production-ready templates that include object storage. This feature excites me. Railway expanded its RBAC system. It now has clearer roles that are each designed with scoped permissions.
Now, why does this matter? It improves security and collaboration by preventing users from having the improper permissions.
In other news, Supabase acquired Triplet, which is an offline first sync-focused database and client framework. Triplet's code base will remain open sourced, and Supabase will explore offline mode options.
This matters to web developers because Supabase is leaning into an open ecosystem. The expanded open source release of Triplet offers valuable patterns for designing sync-heavy, offline-capable applications.
But what did I miss? There's so much happening in modern web dev that I'm sure I've missed something.
Please share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments if you're listening on Spotify, or you can email me at the email included in the show notes.
I want to address your suggestions and may include them in future newsletters. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.